One thing that is obvious very quickly during a visit to Thailand is that there are very many statues of the Buddha, and buddhas in general. We mean, very very many.
There are rows and rows of them in some temples.
They are standing, sitting, lying down, even sashaying.
Seeing so very many buddha statues made us want to know why. If Buddhism is about the teachings and example of the historical person, Siddhartha Gautama, who is not a deity, why are there thousands and thousands of representations of him, and other enlightened people?
We learned that these statues have at least these two purposes:
Buddha statues represent the teachings of the Buddha, not the Buddha as an object of worship. They serve as reminders and inspiration for the daily and personal practice of Buddhist meditation and self-reflection.
Additionally, creating or donating buddha statues is considered a way to accumulate merit for spiritual benefits.
The second of these purposes seems easily to explain why there are so many statues all over the country.
There are seven specific buddha postures, one for each day of the week. It’s common for Thais to identify with and revere the buddha image corresponding to their birth day. Here are the seven postures:
Sunday: Standing Buddha in “Seven Day Gaze” posture, representing the moment Buddha achieved enlightenment after standing motionless for seven days in front of a bodhi tree. People born on Sunday are considered respectable, wise, and loved by family and friends, with a likely professional occupation.
Monday: The “Pacifying the Relatives” pose shows Buddha standing with his right hand raised in a peaceful gesture. This represents an episode where he intervened to prevent conflict between warring relatives, symbolizing peace and conflict resolution.
Tuesday: The Reclining Buddha represents Buddha lowering the pride of a gigantic evil named Asura Rahu. When the evil didn’t show respect, Buddha made himself larger, causing the evil to succumb and accept his teachings.
Wednesday: Uniquely, Wednesday has two different postures one for daytime and one for nighttime. The daytime pose shows Buddha holding an alms bowl, symbolizing his return to his father after four years of ministry and explaining the tradition of monks collecting food.
Thursday: Depicts a meditative Buddha in a half-lotus posture, representing a vow to attain enlightenment by cutting through the causes of suffering.
Friday: Shows Buddha in contemplation with hands crossed, pondering how to explain the cause of suffering so others can break free.
Saturday: Portrays Buddha sitting cross-legged with a serpent behind him, representing a story of being protected from a storm by the King of Nāgas. ※ ※
David was born on a Friday. Mike was born on a Sunday. At Wat Phra Sri Rattana Mahathat, there are buddha statues for each day. We each applied a couple sheets of gold leaf on our specific buddhas. Hopefully to gain merit and to live up to the example of each buddha.
Some buddhas whom we met:
This is the immense reclining buddha statue at Wat Pho. The statue is 46 meters long and completely covered with gold leaf.
The reclining buddha recalls the historical Buddha’s final moments before achieving enlightnment and entering nirvana. It symbolizes the potential for all beings to achieve awakening and liberation from the cycle of rebirth and suffering.
You might notice that the head of hair on most buddha statues, including this one, looks like tight curls. But when we look around at Thai people, most have straight hair. An answer is that all the bumps signify the knowledge he’s acquired and shares with us.
His perfectly aligned feet impressed us. They’re 5 meters long. Beautiful mother-of-pearl patterns cover the soles of his feet. These depict 108 auspicious symbols of Buddhist cosmology.
Wat Pho includes other buildings, including a courtyard ringed with buddha statues.
When we started paying attention to the buddha statues, we came with the preconception that they’re all the same. But no. There are many historical styles, many significant postures and gestures, and even reflection of distinct individuals. All of which aligns perfectly to the dynamic character of Thai Buddhism.
As we learned about the statues, we learned about the symbols on the soles of the Buddha’s feet, and about the traditional importance of symbolic footprints of the Buddha. Which led us to discover that today’s plethora of figurative statues has not always been the norm.
First, as you may know, the historical Buddha, originally Siddhartha Gautama, lived in the fifth century BCE. Perhaps as early as the third century BCE, Buddhism found its way to Thailand, probably via a mission sent by the Indian Emperor at that time, Ashoka. However, there’s no archaeological evidence of Buddhism in Thailand until the sixth century CE.
During the first 500 years after the Buddha’s life, there were no literal representations of the man. Instead, symbols like footprints, empty thrones, or parasols signified his presence; early Buddhists didn’t want to represent the Buddha in human form.
Then, in the first three centuries of the Common Era, Greek Hellenistic art arrived in India. It is thought that these representations of men and women and gods and goddesses inspired the evolution in Indian Buddhism to depict the Buddha in human form.
This is the tradition that Thailand inherited. However, the patterns on the soles of the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho harken back to the times before human-form statues.
Wat Phra Kaew, in Bangkok, was once the private chapel to the kings of Thailand and members of the court. Today, it houses the Emerald Buddha, which holds immense significance in Thailand as a symbol of national identity, spiritual power, and royal legitimacy.
Although its name suggests that the Emerald Buddha is carved of emerald, it is likely carved from jadeite that was hewn from the mountains of Northern Thailand or the Shan State of Myanmar. Its name comes from its green color, and descriptions of it in the 15th-century text, the Chronicle of the Emerald Buddha. According to the text, the statue was carved from a wish-granting jewel in the 1st century B.C.E. in heaven; however, more likely is that it was carved in the 15th century C.E. in Northeastern Thailand. The Chronicle is mostly mythological, but it does provide some historical context for the statue and its function as an object of protection. This is because much of the Emerald Buddha’s description in the Chronicle describes its association with the chakravartin or universal world ruler, as well as its enshrinement in various kingdoms in what is today modern Thailand and Laos. By the reign of King Rama I, the legend of the Emerald Buddha had become well known and its stories became actualized as kings fought over the icon and built grand temples to house it.
When King Rama I established his new capital in Bangkok in 1782, he took the Emerald Buddha from the former capital city of Thonburi (on the opposite side of the Chaophraya River from present-day Bangkok). In fact, prior to becoming king, he was a military general for the previous ruler of Thailand, King Taksin. At that time, he captured the Emerald Buddha from Vientiane, Laos, so that King Taksin could claim the icon for himself. When Taksin was dethroned and ritually killed, King Rama I marked his new reign with the enshrinement of the Emerald Buddha in the Grand Palace.
(source)
We found another green buddha statue that we particularly liked. This one sits among quite a few golden statues at Wat Prathat Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai. It’s made of green glass, and was a gift, like all the others, to the temple.
Sitting nearby there’s another notable figure, at least to us. This one is of a monk. It exudes a gorgeous elegance. Statues of notable monks serve a similar purpose as do the buddha statues: reminders of good practices and the goals of Buddhism, and that anyone can attain enlightenment if he or she does the work.
One final buddha statue. This one sits at the edge of the Mekong River in far north Thailand, at the Golden Triangle. This is the place where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet. The sculpture is very large, 92 m or 302 ft tall. It was built very recently, completed in 2008. While buddha sculptures always serve to remind us all of the Buddha’s teaching, it turns out that they can also aim to encourage tourism! The sponsors of the construction of this statue wanted to enhance the visitor experience at the Golden Triangle (more about which in a later post). So, secular and spiritual overlap, as usual.
January-February 2025